Arabic - contrary to Latin - based languages - does not have vowels. So to make it easier to pronounce clusters of consonants we use some form of punctuation characters above or under the letters to indicate how to pronounce it properly. The three main characters equals to "a", "i", "o" in English. So any letter (F for example) may be pronounced fa, fi, or fo based on these punctuation characters. To make it easier to speak, and when speaking moderately fast, we usually drop the punctuation at the end of the words. So to answer your question, both are right, with "masmouk" and "ant" used more commonly when speaking Modern Standard Arabic, while "masmouka" and "anta" are the more accurate forms grammatically.

So, to return to my question, is it possible to just drop the "a". Do they mean the same? Is one better than the other?

she means by " Alharakat" those short vowels or short sounds which are added to the letter when you usually speak the formal Arabic or Fus_ha

Hi, Wafaa. I'm not sure I understand what you mean, by that, though. :/

he just didn't use alhrakat